Stay on target

Popular shonen anime tend to be the most cookie-cutter things, especially if they’re based on a premise of a kid who aspires to be something cool when he grows up. Even if the concepts vary wildly across things like ninjas, pirates, and ghost hunters, they tend to settle into very similar formulas and hit very similar notes and run through very similar arcs. And My Hero Academia is no different. In terms of narrative beats, it’s the most stock shonen anime you could come up with.

And I really, really like it, because it goes through those familiar motions exceptionally well, fixing most of the problems I have with nearly every other shonen anime of its type.

But first, a note about the name. It’s called Boku no Hero Academia in Japan, and My Hero Academia here. Both names are equally valid, so don’t try for weeb cred by turning your nose up at the English name. First, the names mean the same thing. Second, half of the Japanese name is in English anyway. Third, and most importantly, the logo says My Hero Academia in English above Boku no Hero Academia in kanji and kana. And the same thing goes for Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin. If there’s an English version of the title on the show’s logo, it’s just as valid as the Japanese one.

Also, I really like calling it Macademia. Don’t @ me.

Anyway, My Hero Academia takes place in a world where 80 percent of the population has developed superpowers called “quirks” through an unexplained phenomena. Because of this, superheroes are everywhere, regulated by the government and organized into private agencies. Izuku “Deku” Midoriya was born without a quirk, but he wants to be a hero like his idol All-Might. He’s picked on by his classmates, who all have quirks and make fun of him for being different.

You can see why this is sometimes nicknamed “green Naruto (his costume is green).”

Deku meets All-Might and gets the opportunity to go to the UA hero academy, the most high-profile school for aspiring heroes. He also realizes an incredible power he can’t consciously control, and needs to train to improve how he can use it. While getting better understanding of his power, he fights rivals and has to deal with dangerous villains.

This is all straight out of your most basic shonen anime template. But here’s why Macademia executes it so well: Its characters are interesting and well-developed. Straight-up, that’s it. The characters are actually characters, in addition to being clear-cut shonen anime archetypes. They’re people with personalities, motivations, and flaws. They’re compelling and deep, at least for the genre.

Deku isn’t a blindly optimistic dynamo who constantly holds the idiot ball like Naruto. He’s cloyingly positive and helpful, sure, but there are actual reasons for that. He grew up without a quirk but idolizing the world’s greatest hero, and now he’s in a position where he can fulfill his dream. He’s also a good decade behind all the other students, who got their quirks as toddlers, and has to hide his relationship with All-Might on top of it. After dealing with years of bullying on top of that, he’s actually a neurotic wreck who tends to burst into tears when he accomplishes something great because he still can’t believe he can do it.

He’s very bright and analytical, constantly making notes and considering how to best deal with different superpowers. A running gag even develops around his incessant mumbling when he’s watching other heroes, and how everyone else looks at him strangely for it. And, while he’s great at coming up with tactics to solve problems and get the edge in fights, they’re not always correct. He isn’t ever shown as an infallible star student, just like he isn’t ever shown as a perpetually stupid combat prodigy.

Then there’s Deku’s power. It’s new to him, and he has no idea how to control it at first. The power is as generic as the premise, simply absurd strength and speed. The problem is, because he can’t control it, using this power seriously injures him. It isn’t a process of Deku learning new special moves to use against enemies; it’s a process of Deku figuring out how to channel the sudden power inside him, so it doesn’t cripple him. That’s really interesting, and seeing him improve in controlling his power alongside seeing him learn to accept that he’s able to keep up with his aspiring hero classmates in the face of his inferiority complex is incredibly compelling.

The supporting cast are just as interesting, with their own layered histories and motivations. Let’s skip All-Might, who I’ll just say isn’t quite the unbeatable, dauntless superhero he seems to be. And he probably isn’t what you’re thinking he is now, either.

Bakugo is Deku’s rival, who has been bullying him since they were kids. He’s obsessively competitive and has extreme rage issues. He’s also Deku’s classmate in UA, because his quirk, skills, and ambition got him into the school. He flies off the handle at anything, and generally acts like a rage-filled jackass.

And his classmates react to him like they would to a rage-filled jackass. Bakugo’s a star student with a ton of power, and he’s on track to be a big hero. His classmates respect that, but they also realize that he’s a huge asshole all the time. This isn’t like Sasuke with blind hero-worship for a mopey dick (and eventual forgiveness for some really, really messed-up things). He’s a jerk, and everyone says “He’s a jerk, you guys want to hang out somewhere else?” That’s so weirdly rare to see in a shonen anime, especially if your go-to is Naruto.

Todoroki and Iida are much more traditionally respectable allies/rivals to Deku, and on the surface they seem like they would be incredibly bland and tropey. Todoroki is the laconic hero aristocrat with incredible power and ability, and Iida is the high-strung lawful good hero stereotype. But then you dig deeper into them as characters. Todoroki has a complicated relationship with his family and his powers, and his struggles with both are interesting in their own right. And Iida worships his brother, who’s already a high-profile hero, while still dealing with living in his shadow and the question of whether he can be his own hero or follow in his brother’s high-speed footsteps. They aren’t just (blank) personality with (blank) power and (blank) motivation. They’re actually fleshed-out characters with their own backgrounds that directly inform the type of people they are and how they react to different things.

Ochaco Uraraka is the primary female character and one of Deku’s best friends at UA, and she too manages to avoid becoming a tropey paper doll. She’s a good-natured, soft-spoken girl, but those aspects hide some compelling characterization and personality traits, and manages to become more interesting and well-rounded as a character than Sakura became in two entire Naruto series. She doesn’t pine over Deku or Bakugo or Todoroki, and even her relationship with Deku develops out of mixed motivations including some uncharacteristic-for-the-archetype streaks of opportunism and individual determination. Just like all the other major characters, she has a background and personality that inform her decisions in a compelling and natural way.

While the concepts in Macademia are lifted directly from shonen anime archetypes, the pacing isn’t. There aren’t hundreds and hundreds of episodes to pore through to catch up on. The anime is arranged into seasons, and after two seasons there are currently 38 episodes to watch, and none feel remotely like filler. That means every major fight, challenge, and contest gets done in less time than a Peter Jackson movie trilogy, which is more than can be said about Dragonball Z/Super, Naruto, or Bleach.

Entrance exams? Two episodes. Tense ambush spread across multiple locations? Four episodes. Sports festival? Two events at two episodes each and a full tournament that takes six episodes. Basically, there isn’t going to be a My Hero Academia Kai, because everything is paced very well. Each encounter takes long enough to show the character development it needs to establish, but doesn’t waste episodes milking tension. There are plenty of moments of uncertainty and lots of seemingly insurmountable challenges, but these problems are recognized, analyzed, and addressed immediately instead of aimlessly looming to bump up the episode count.

My Hero Academia isn’t the most unique, visually breathtaking, or philosophically interesting anime series. It doesn’t have the sheer weirdness of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure or the epic scale of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann or the impeccably crafted style of Cowboy Bebop. It just executes the shonen anime formula incredibly well by having interesting, compelling characters with well-developed backgrounds and motivations that influence their decisions and interactions in very natural ways. It takes the most basic Naruto-like structure and executes it in a way that never feels like the characters are acting solely in the service of the plot, or that they’re hesitating or making bad decisions purely to stretch out the runtime.